Russian compatriots from South Ossetia took part in the International Forum of Russian Compatriots Living Abroad “New Realities - New Opportunities”. The Forum was held in the capital of Belarus - Minsk, as well as Gomel from December 10 to 16 and brought together about a hundred participants from the post-Soviet countries: Moldova, Belarus, Tajikistan, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Ukraine, Turkmenistan, Abkhazia, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan.
The focus of the Forum was on the development of the youth movement and improvement of communication among Russian compatriots, said Maria Meleshihina, one of the South Ossetian participants, in her interview with the IA “Res”.
“For six days, we were deepening our knowledge in the field of legal literacy, we were also given fascinating lectures, master classes on conflict management and time management. The speakers were leading experts in their fields, which cannot but rejoice and speaks of the high level and importance of the Forum,” said the agency's interlocutor.
She has added that the participants of the event were also involved in the creation of projects.
“Almost immediately we were divided into teams so that participants from different countries could get to know each other better. We had a business game: “From idea to project”.
The ideas were supposed to contribute to the development of such areas as support of the Russian language, culture, education; support for the media, information coverage of the activities of organizations of Russian compatriots, protection of the rights of Russian-speaking citizens abroad, support for socially vulnerable groups of compatriots, i.e., social projects, etc. Our team decided to create a project to support young compatriots and their associations. We started working in this direction and completely from scratch developed the idea of the project, its goals, tasks and so on. We were given very little time for all this. The lack of skills in creating projects and the small amount of time allocated forced us to leave our comfort zone, but on the contrary, it brought the team members together, and as a result, not only interesting projects turned out, but we also became very friendly with guys from other countries," says Maria.
She expressed gratitude to all organizers for such a wonderful event, as well as to the Russian Embassy in South Ossetia and the Coordination Council of Russian Compatriots in our Republic "for the opportunity to become a part of such a large and important forum, new knowledge and friends."
The interlocutor of the agency added that the participants had a rich cultural program: a tour of Gomel was held, where they could see the Rumyantsev and Paskevich Palace, tombs, as well as a Winter Garden.
According to Maria Meleshihina, on December 15, in the House of Moscow in Minsk, a final plenary session was held, at which the results of the Forum were summed up, after which there was a reception on behalf of the Moscow government.
The Forum was held under the patronage of the government commission for the affairs of compatriots abroad and with the support of the Moscow government. The main organizers were the Department of Foreign Economic and International Relations of the city of Moscow, "Moscow House of the Compatriot" and the Department for work with compatriots abroad of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia.
